Month: June 2017

Report on the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Biennial Congress in Barcelona, Spain

By
Mary Pat Couig, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) held its biennial Congress in Barcelona, Spain, 27 May – 1 June 2017. Founded in 1899, ICN is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations and represents over 16 million nurses globally. ICN’s website is: http://www.icn.ch

This year’s conference theme, Nurses at the Forefront Transforming Care, provided a framework for presentations, discussions, and posters on issues affecting nurses and patient care around the globe: health care systems, sustainable health care, conflicts and disasters, safety and quality in the workplace and professional practice and innovative policies. The full program can be found at: http://www.icnbarcelona2017.com/en

On Monday 29 May, Mr. Ian Norton, Dr. Pilar Fernandez and Professor Aiko Yamamoto presented on disaster preparedness, response and resilience. Mr. Norton presented on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Initiative. The EMT initiative assists organizations and member states to build infrastructure and strengthen health systems with quality approved medical teams in emergencies. This initiative is focused on helping countries develop their own teams who can respond quickly. The EMT website is: http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/preparedness/emergency_medical_teams/en/

Professor Yamamoto provided an update on the Disaster Nursing Global Leader Degree Program, a collaborative between 5 universities in Japan. The goal of the program is to develop global disaster nursing leaders to ensure human security. Professor Yamamoto gave an overview of the past achievements and future work in the areas of long-term recovery, community-based resiliency, comprehensive family oriented approaches, disaster ethics, and new practices. More information can be found at the website: http://www.u-hyogo.ac.jp/cnas/english/dngl/